


Sordid

by blythechild



Series: Ignition Series [4]
Category: V for Vendetta (2005)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-13
Updated: 2012-02-13
Packaged: 2017-10-31 01:49:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/338547
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blythechild/pseuds/blythechild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This story takes place in the Ignition universe but it is a stand-alone. V and Evey have an unfortunate incident in a tube tunnel that leads to an emotional crisis for Evey. Please take note of the title: that pretty much tells you everything you need to know about this fic.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sordid

**Author's Note:**

> This is smut folks, pure and simple. Do I need to type out an exaggerated warning?
> 
> This is a work of fanfiction and as such I do not claim ownership over the characters herein. It was created as a personal entertainment. This story also contains mature themes, acts of violence, and explicit sexual content. It should not be read by minors. I also do not condone or endorse any acts described here.

The two stood just inside the threshold of their home speechless and covered in debris. Both had a fine layer of gray dust over them, cemented by exertion, and both shook in sympathy with the tinnitus that reverberated in their ears. Evey was covered in a sizeable amount of blood and stood staring blankly into the depths of the Shadow Gallery. V reached out for her and then thought better of the impulse and let his hand drop to his side instead. 

It had all happened so quickly and without warning. 

V and Evey had spent the day clearing an abandoned section of the Underground when V discovered that part of the train tunnel had been sealed off with concrete and cinder blocks. The tunnel and its tracks were integral to his vendetta plans, so he produced a pneumatic drill from his seemingly endless supply of equipment in the Gallery and began to chip away at the blockage. He and Evey had taken turns with the drill in order to avoid exhaustion and to save their hearing from the ceaseless bombardment of metal on concrete. They had made speedy progress together despite this unforeseen delay.

Evey, on a break from the bone-shattering drill duty, had wandered back to the mouth of the tunnel to clear debris and distance herself from the noise and dust. The tunnel ground vibrated with V’s efforts, as the after effects of the drill still vibrated in her body, and in her distracted state she did not sense his presence until he was right in front of her.

“Oi! What’s going on here?!”

Evey looked up and brushed dusty hair from her eyes to reveal a middle-aged, pudgy man with a receding hairline, maintenance log and the blinking eyes of a shocked mole. 

“What the hell are you doing? There’s no work scheduled for this section.” The mole quickly scanned his log to confirm this fact. “Let me see your i.d.”

Evey froze as the noise of civil disobedience continued unabated behind her. The mole wore a uniform: Department of Civil Engineering. He was part of the system that V was seeking to destroy, though he carried no gun and would likely blanche at violence entirely. There was no way that he was _not_ going to report this to some sort of authority. He braced one hand on his hip and scowled at Evey when she continued to stare at him, it was then that she saw the com radio hooked to his belt. Suddenly, her body vivified and acted as if controlled by another.

“We’re clearing the tunnel.” She said.

“I can _hear_ that, young lady! What I want to know is on whose authority are you doing this?” He waved his logbook in front of her. “There is no reason for this cavity to be unsealed. It’s a security breach – tell me who you are and what department you are working for or I’ll radio Main Branch.”

“Please don’t do that.” She pleaded.

“Tell me who you are, then.”

Evey remained silent. She waited for the terminal moment – the second that Fate decided what course of action she should take, when all other outcomes had diminished into the realm of the untenable. The mole huffed and then reached for his radio, and Evey’s course was set. She lunged at him and tried to grab the radio from him. He yelped and backed away, swatting at her with his aluminum logbook in fright. One lucky pass clipped Evey hard on her left cheekbone and it sent her reeling with a loud cry. Behind her, deep within the tunnel, the sounds of drilling stopped. Evey recovered and lunged again, this time knocking the radio from the man’s hands. A moment later, a silver knife whizzed past the man’s face and embedded itself in the concrete wall behind him. He yelped again and looked past Evey in terror to see the coalescing shadow of V emerging from the tunnel’s depths behind her. Evey looked back too for a moment, and the man seized the opportunity and took to his heels.

Evey looked at the running man and then back to V. Although V was faster and stronger than she, he would have to clear the debris hurdles in order to catch up with his prey. She was closer, and she knew that they could not allow the man to reach the surface. She turned on her heel and sprinted after the engineer, leaving V behind.

The engineer was overweight and slow, and Evey caught up with him quickly. She grabbed his coat and twirled him to face her, pulling a small blade from its sheath strapped to her thigh as she did so. He struggled against her and stumbled backwards, pulling Evey down with him.

“No! Please, no!” He screamed as his arms flailed at Evey.

“I’m sorry!” She whispered through gritted teeth as she lashed out and cleanly slit his throat.

Arterial spray erupted over her as the engineer’s heart continued to pump in a frenzied attempt to power the body’s escape. In less than a minute, he was gone and when V found them, he saw Evey cradling the dead engineer in her arms whispering apologies over and over again.

“Evey!” He cried.

“I had to do it. I had to…” Evey turned her bloodstained face towards him, her eyes brimming with tears. “He was just doing his job.”

V moved forward without hesitation and lifted the dead man out of Evey’s lap.

“Go to the tunnel and hide the tools. Wait for me there – I’ll return in 10 minutes. Go!”

Evey jolted at V’s tone and leapt to her feet, quickly heading back towards the tunnel. She dropped her head so that her hair would cover her face and then looked over her shoulder as V disappeared into an adjacent tunnel, whisking away the evidence of her crime. It was the longest 10 minutes of Evey’s life, but V returned as promised and they both fled to the safety of the Gallery in silence. 

And there they stood. 

Evey was shaking with her shoulders hunched and her arms tight to her sides. A fine dust cloud was rising from her hair from the vibrations, producing an odd, smoking halo around her – like some kind of steaming angel. Her fingers twitched absently at her thighs. V did not know what to do or to say to her. She had done the right thing but it was going to cost her dearly. He silently chided himself for not being quicker, from not saving her from this harsh reality. Once again he reached out for her.

“Evey,” He whispered.

She jumped slightly at the sound of his voice and moved forward, away from his reach. She continued walking towards the bathroom, and spoke without looking back at him.

“I need a bath.”

She shut the door firmly and soon V heard the sound of running water. He wanted to be with her, to let her know that he understood – the first intentional kill is always the hardest, and no matter what happens afterwards, you never forget it. She had protected them both, and had shown him that she had truly embraced his plan. He was proud of her but he did not know how to tell her so. Despite their new closeness, he still felt like a stranger in a strange land when it came to Evey – she felt like home but he did not speak her language.

As he thought about what to do next, he abandoned his cloak, doublet, gauntlets, boots and hat – and with that, much of the choking concrete dust that clung to him. He applied a new mask and wig, which he continued to wear despite his intimacy with Evey, and rummaged through his work room to find some spare security sensors – he would need to keep a watch over his train tunnel in case the engineer’s death lured more visits from curious structural engineers. He had disposed of the engineer’s body in an alleyway on the surface that was known for its roving gangs of petty thieves – it would be assumed that the engineer had met his fate at the hands of a robber. But, just in case someone should be too clever for their own good, he had to find a way to protect his work. Newly absorbed in the potential consequences of the engineer’s death, he padded past the bathroom door in stocking feet and heard faint sobs coming from within. His heart stopped for an instant and then restarted with a painful thud. He was so used to death, and able to switch easily from it to more pressing problems, that he had forgotten about how traumatizing mortal matters could be. Evey was an emotional being – it was part of what he treasured about her – but he was less so. How could he comfort her?

He left his workroom gadgets on a side table and placed his hand on the bathroom doorknob. Steadying himself with a few deep breaths, he quietly turned the knob and entered the room. Evey sat in the bubble-filled tub with her naked back to him. Her body shook with gentle sobs as she wrapped her arms around her bent knees, offering her small comfort. V felt as though he was a thief sneaking into her private sanctuary. They had been intimate a handful of times, but always on mutual ground and in the dark. It seemed wrong somehow that he should see her like this: uninvited, unguarded, her naked body aglow in the soft light of the room. He had second thoughts and made to leave when she turned suddenly, her eyes red with tears and shock, and looked at him.

Her head dropped immediately to hide her face from him and she wrapped her arms around her breasts self-consciously. He raised his hand gently, noticing for the first time that he had not replaced his gauntlets.

“I’ll leave should you wish for privacy, but I heard you crying…”

Evey said nothing, but her body relaxed. She turned away from him and leaned back against the end of the tub so that just her head and neck remained above the frothy surface. V walked up behind her and pulled over a small stool to sit on. He looked down over her head and watched as the bubbles slowly swirled around her and the tub, new ripples being made by the movements of her body beneath. She breathed out deeply and closed her eyes. He reached for a strand of her hair and felt the gritty dust rub against his fingers. He dipped his hand in the bathwater to rinse it away and then hit upon a plan.

Cradling the back of her head with one hand he pushed her gently from the lip of the tub. Her eyes opened and she looked up questioningly but yielded to his directions nonetheless. With his free hand he dipped her hair into the water, soaking it slowly. In the water her curls relaxed into long, wavy strands and he ran his fingers through it with secret delight as he worked to remove the dust. Reaching for the shampoo, he applied it and set about a deep scalp massage, sectioning her head into areas of pressure points and working each section with practiced, methodical fingers. He massaged the base of her skull and her temples, her hairline and the whirl of her crown, producing a slippery, perfumed lather that was its own sensory delight. Evey said nothing but her eyes closed and lost the tightness that grief had placed upon them. V watched her slowly melt into his grip. He closed his eyes behind the mask in silent thanks that he had chosen the right thing to comfort her, that he had struck the right balance in the moment. Looking over her again as she lay helpless in his arms, exhibiting a trust that he had never been given by any other person, he felt a new sensation begin to take over – something more mammalian – and he shook it from his head trying to will the urge from him. 

He lowered her gently into the water to rinse her, and she allowed him to handle her without hesitation. Her hair flowed around her as if alive. Not like a Gorgon, he thought, but something mythological, like a Siren perhaps – he almost expected to see the bathwater littered with dashed ships and the broken bodies of sailors who had died on the rocks of her love. He raised her up again and reached for the conditioner. This liquid was slicker than the shampoo had been, and as he massaged her with it, his hands began to roam more freely over her neck and shoulders as they were carried away but the force of his own titillation. He reached a pressure point at the base of her neck and she arched slightly upwards at the feeling, revealing the tips of rosy nipples through the bubbled bathwater. He shook his head again to clear the licentious thoughts – she could not help that she was naked in this situation and it was _not_ an invitation for him to pounce upon her, he reminded himself. He decided to speak as he rinsed her hair once again, both in an attempt to ward off his growing arousal and to reassure Evey about what she had done.

“It may never feel like it, but you did the right thing today.”

Evey’s eyes opened and stared up at him hard. The tiny lines around the edges returned.

“He was just doing his job, V. He wasn’t evil. He wasn’t a Fingerman. He was just…” Her breath caught in her chest.

“He was an innocent.” V replied.

“Yes.” Tears spilled from her eyes and dripped into the bathwater.

“Freedom isn’t free, Evey.” V sighed while still cradling her head in his hands. “It would be easier if one only had to dispatch those who truly deserved it, but life is not so black and white. We are fighting a system that subjugates goodness and humanity, but that system survives because it co-opts the very people that we are trying to free. The supreme irony of Norsefire is that the very qualities that it seeks to obliterate in people are the qualities that power it and ensure its survival with the masses.”

Evey sat up quickly in a rush of water and moved away from his hands. She looked over her shoulder at him. He raised one soapy hand to her in supplication.

“Until this system is shown for the abuse that it is, innocents will continue to suffer. While they are the force behind my plan, if they hamper it, they become an unacceptable risk that must be eliminated. You must never lose sight of what we are trying to achieve, Evey – is it not worth a few innocent lives in order to free millions?”

“How can you be so callous?” Evey’s eyes narrowed.

“I am not. I am merely being pragmatic.” V’s hand fell back into the bathwater with a disheartened splash. “I have killed many people, Evey. Sometimes, I even enjoyed it, but I have never relished the death of the innocent. I have never celebrated it and, though you may find it hard to believe of a demon like me, I have never, ever forgotten a single face. They haunt me and steel me to my purpose, fore if they did not, their deaths would become _meaningless_. No one is without meaning to me.”

V rose to leave, hoping that perhaps in time, Evey could come to forgive his moral ambiguity. His heart shuddered at the thought that she would view him as a monster from this day forward.

“I am proud of you, Evey.” He turned to look at her over his shoulder. “Not for killing, but because you made a difficult decision under pressure and remained committed to your beliefs. I regret that you must now have to live with the consequences of that decision, but applaud the fortitude behind it. You are a woman of principle - it is a rare thing in these times.”

He turned to go but Evey caught his hand in hers and held him fast. He looked back and saw her leaning against the end of the tub, her eyes suddenly large with pleading. His soapy hand slid back over hers as he backed up and caressed down along the soft skin of her forearm. He bent down next to the tub and stared at her. The cut along her cheekbone where the engineer had hit her was clean but a nasty welt was already rising beneath it. He brushed it with his other hand and Evey closed her eyes and let out a sob as fresh tears rolled down over his fingers.

“You’re right.” She whispered. “Freedom isn’t free at all.”

“And the engineer wasn’t the only innocent harmed today, was he?” V nodded his mask pointedly at Evey.

She shook her head and stifled another sob. With both hands, she grasped his mask and leaned her forehead against it. 

“I’m sorry that I could not make this decision for you, Evey. Had I been quicker, you would not be having this crisis of conscience now.”

“I’m not a child, V.” Evey shook her head against his slowly. “I cannot hide away from the unpleasant realities of what we are doing. I just wish… I just wish that I didn’t feel so… alone.”

V looked at her and was about to say something reassuring when she spoke again.

“V, take your mask off.”

He hesitated. How could he deny her in this moment? Still, she had never really seen his body and he could not dispel his fear of her rejection. As he tried to pull away, she rose up out of the bathwater, her breasts and belly glistening with a soapy sheen, and reached behind his head to unfasten the straps. His mask fell away and he drew his eyes from her body to her face. Evey reached up and pulled his wig off, tossing it gently aside. It had happened very quickly and now he kneeled before her and waited on her judgment. His heart pounded in his chest like the first time that he had touched her as her eyes scanned his ruined face. He did not know what he would do if she rejected him: probably, he would break her and then himself in two and he shuddered at the thought of it. But Evey’s eyes looked upon him as they always had and she smiled shyly as her fingers traced a scar around his mouth. She leaned in close until her lips brushed his.

“I don’t want to be alone, V. Please stay…” Her breath warmed his skin.

He kissed her chastely while trying to avoid looking at her body. His violent passion lit up in him as suddenly as a newly struck match and he fought to tamp it down. He could not bring himself to ask if she felt it too: the deep need to reaffirm the fact that one was _alive_ after being in close proximity to death. It gripped him every time that he killed but he found the primal sensation disrespectful and vaguely dirty, and he could not bring himself to believe that Evey would be moved by such base impulses. He kissed her again and stroked her face as every fiber of him erected to full attention.

“I’ll stay with you if you wish.” He husked.

“V…” Evey averted her eyes. “I… I feel…”

She stopped and blushed deeply, which he found charming. Then she reached for his hand and placed it on her breast squeezing it slightly. He felt shocked and it must have shown on his face as she started to babble almost immediately.

“I don’t want you to think less of me, but I just want… I just _need_ to feel alive, V. I know that it’s unseemly and vile. It lessens the magnitude of what I have done – and maybe that’s why I need it so much, just to make myself feel better. I don’t know… please don’t… don’t hate me, V. Please.”

The words were hardly out of her mouth before he grabbed her up and kissed her nearly breathless. His hands slipped on her soapy back and he had to keep grabbing at her as she slid this way and that. She let out a little meep of shock at his violence but grateful drank him in as she struggled to stay in his arms. Bathwater sloshed violently out of the tub as they wrestled with each other in a flurry of messy hands and teeth and tongues. Evey slid and slammed her elbow on the tub bottom, wincing as the blow danced up her arm like a rung bell. Their thrashing soaked V’s entire upper body and Evey seized him by his wet shirt ends and pulled backwards with all of her strength until he fell into the tub with a loud splash on top of her. The tub rocked dangerously with their unsettled weight and canted back on two legs and wedged itself against the bathroom wall, embedding the tub ledge into the wall’s plaster. Securely anchored for the moment, V and Evey were sandwiched together by gravity and the shape of the tub’s corner. The precariousness of their position did not seem apparent to either of them as Evey groaned under V’s vicious love bites while his hands groped between her legs. 

One hand found her while the other gripped her hip painfully to keep her in place. She jerked and twitched under his grip in a false effort to free herself; secretly, this was what she wanted – to be taken without courtesy or preamble. V’s fingers sought out her center and stroked her roughly. He growled and rubbed his groin against her as her moans became cries, and the cries became pleas, and finally the pleas just became his name chanted over and over. He abandoned his teasing and thrust one finger deep within her as she arched upwards into him and wrapped her fingers in the folds of his shirt. She gasped and clung to him, feeling the solidness of his erection pressed flat into her belly. He moved his finger in and out of her with an escalating rhythm while absently playing her enflamed folds with his thumb. The tickling, teasing penetration drove Evey mad. She tried to rise up into him, but his hand still gripped her hip to the bottom of the tub. She bit and clawed at his chest and arms to no avail except the occasional gasp that he uttered when she caused him pain. Finally, he began to rub himself against her in time with his finger – his own groans signaling his collapsing willpower. V’s moans of delight sent her into orbit and she came in his hands without warning. The power of it took her by surprise and she ripped his wet shirt down the middle as her hands sought to release the tension radiating out of her body. His chest and back were bare with the ruins of his shirt swirling about his arms.

“I’m sorry.” She gasped. “I couldn’t help myself.”

“It’s alright. I have plenty of shirts for you to ruin.”

“That’s not what I meant!”

Her sentence was cut short as he pushed a second finger inside her and she gasped as the feeling sent a bolt of electricity straight up her spine. She began to move and moan again, shocked at his ability to make her come and arouse her anew so quickly. His body cried out to feel him race past his breaking point and destroy himself within her. He wanted to feel his body spasm with hers. He wanted to feel like he was dying and then beg for it again and again, knowing that she would love him all the more for it. He knew that she wanted to be punished for what she had done in the tunnels and that she was begging him - the most enthralled and trusted person that she knew - to do it. As far as punishments went, it was not a harsh one unless one factored in the shame of finding pleasure at the pinnacle of death. He knew that she would have to live with that, just as he did, but at least she could bear the burden with someone who understood how it felt. 

“I want you inside me!” She pleaded as she fumbled at his wet pants.

“I won’t last long.” He warned which only elicited a growl from her in response.

The bathwater rippled with Evey’s attempts to free V from his pants. She managed the button but his fly was irretrievably stuck, much to his escalating anxiety. 

“Christ, woman! You’ve already destroyed my shirt….” He growled, hoping that she would understand.

Evey grabbed the sides of his fly with both hands and rent them apart with an impressive yell. V laughed and then caught her lower lip in his teeth, forcing her into stillness beneath him. He bit down slightly and she jerked, then he moved along her jaw line up to her ear.

“You must really need this…” He whispered knowingly.

“I need to feel good about the evil that I’ve done so that I can live with myself. But I also need to be punished for it…” She clung to him and he felt her shiver as she admitted her need.

“I know, baby, I know…”

Without further discussion, V removed his fingers and drove his cock into her. She clamped down around him in response – an unconscious move to protect herself from his onslaught – but he withdrew completely and drove into her again up to the hilt, delighting in her resistance. She cried out, half in pain and half in pleasure, but he was not satisfied. He reached behind her and drove a finger up her ass, mimicking the rhythm of his strokes with it. Evey gasped and froze beneath him as he continued to pound into her both front and back. What remained of the bathwater sloshed dramatically from one side of the tub to the other as V’s assault intensified. Evey shut her eyes tightly forcing tears out and down her cheeks. She dug her nails into the rough skin over V’s back and buried her face into his chest while listening to him grunt over her. He picked up the pace, and with that, he increased his power so that, on one particularly forceful thrust, their momentum dislodged the tub ledge from the plaster and rocked it back onto four legs again with a tremendous crack and dramatic sloshing. They both slid, and for a moment Evey was completely submerged underwater while V pulsed within her. V’s grip on her hip sharpened and her raised her up the side of the tub before she choked. He stopped moving, concerned for her safety, until Evey ground herself back against his groin and hand breathlessly. 

“Alright…” he growled to himself.

He released her hip and wrapped his hand in her wet hair instead. He pulled her head back and bit at her neck hard enough that he knew that it would leave a mark. Starting to pulse again inside her, he quickly picked up the pace as she wrapped her legs around his waist and violently shuddered against him with every thrust. Evey did not cry out or call his name but her breathing erupted from her in hot ragged bursts that told him of her need. He felt tension curling within him, wrapping itself around the base of his spine, and with every twitch that she made, that tension inched its way lower. His own breathing became shallow and the world faded from him as he only sought out the focus of his desire. He pushed Evey’s head into his chest as he forced her up the side of the tub. With his other hand, he braced her legs against his shoulders and threw away all restraint as he stroked her with abandon. She was calling to him now and he felt himself tighten all over as the crest of his orgasm descended on him. Evey cried out against his chest as her body squeezed around him in climax, and as her pleasure died away he came in sympathy. His release was long and draining, perhaps because it was not only in service his desire, but also it was a method of dispelling their guilt and sorrow – together. Living was the only thing that mattered, but it should never blind them to the cost. 

They both lay together in the few inches of tepid, unspilled bathwater trying to catch their breath. V reached out to Evey’s face and pulled it near so that their foreheads touched once again. He stared at her hoping to read the beginnings of atonement in her eyes. She traced scar patterns across his chest. A lone tear streaked down her cheek and onto him.

“What a sordid day it’s been...” He sighed and stroked her tear’s path.

Evey looked up at him and smiled beautifully despite the tears brimming in her eyes.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but… if I _had_ to experience depravity, I’m glad that I could experience it with you.” She blushed again and ducked her head. “I’m glad that I _have you_ , V.”

V’s heart throbbed with a painful swell, like the first note of music that shatters the silence preceding it. He could find nothing to say, so instead he curled his bare body around Evey’s and hoped that it would be enough.


End file.
